1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to accessory holders useful to waitresses serving cocktails from small, hand-carried trays, and more particularly to a snap-on type tray caddy having a plurality of variously sized, open-topped compartments, and adapted for detachable securement to the rim of a round cocktail serving tray.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the work of waitresses generally, and cocktail waitresses in particular, various accoutrements are carried and dispensed by the waitresses as patrons are served and the meal is catered. A cocktail waitress, for example, has a need to carry a sufficient amount of coinage in proper denominations so that change may be made when a customer is paying his bill. She must carry a pen or pencil for calculating the customer's bill, she must have a pocket or other receptacle for the accommodation and accumulation of tips, matches are frequently requested by customers, napkins and swizzle sticks must often be on hand, and the bills or charge tickets, both clean and those being tabulated, must be at hand and properly segregated.
In many environments of service, the level of light is such that a small penlight is essential. Moreover, in the course of keeping the items necessary to provide first-rate service in the possession of the waitress and close at hand, conditions are frequently encountered in which the customers' checks and currency collected by the waitress become dampened or wetted by inadvertently spilled drinks, and the inconvenience of transferring soggy currency and checks back and forth between the customer and waitress is encountered. Moreover, damp or soggy checks are difficult to process in the cash register. In sum, under most conditions of service, the waitress is required to be digitally facile and dexterous, and partakes of some of the occupational hazards of a juggler.
To aid the waitress in rendering better service, as well as to improve and maintain waitress morale, a variety of caddy or tray-type containerized systems have been devised to accommodate the various accoutrements which the waitress must handle in the course of service, and to place them within reach of the waitress and make them accessible in a more desirable fashion. Such caddies and trays include, for example, those of the type which are described and/or illustrated in Robinson et al. U.S. Pat. No. D-220,644; McKay U.S. Pat. No. D-200,547; Fredrickson U.S. Pat. No. D-183,165; McKay U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,946; Brocato U.S. Pat. No. 3,670,938; Fehn U.S. Pat. No. D-210,478; Gottsegen U.S. Pat. No. D-240,578; and McCaffrey U.S. Pat. No. D-257,113. Some of these patents, such as the McCaffrey food and service caddy and the McKay service receptacle, are designed for attachment to a cocktail tray or service tray of the type having an upwardly and outwardly projecting rim or flange around the outer periphery thereof. Others, such as that shown in the Robinson patent, are intended to be rested upon and within the tray, thereby affording perhaps greater stability and better support than the rim-supported, suspended type of caddy, but requiring the utilization of some of the space on the serving tray which could otherwise be used for drinks or food.
Many of the described trays, receptacles and caddies are compartmentalized to facilitate the carriage therein of a plurality of items of varying shapes and sizes. The Robinson tray caddy, for example, has a series of small compartments therein which are shaped to accommodate coinage of varying denominations and thus of different sizes. The Robinson caddy also provides a small compartment for the accommodation of book matches, and a compartment in which cash or currency can be located.